Anger Management
by xxxidrilxxx
Summary: Modern AU: After beating up her sister's boyfriend, Arya is forced to go to and anger management clinic, where she meets a certain blue eyed boy named Gendry. Multi-chapter!
1. Chapter 1

Arya pulled into an empty parking space in front of the clinic and turned the engine off. She checks her wrist watch. There is still 15 minutes before her appointment.

"Stupid Joffrey!" she steps out of the car with a groan. _He is the reason I'm here._ She pulls a cigarette and a lighter from her bag, wondering what Sansa sees in that twat.

There's a stone bench in front of a short hedge along the walk to the clinic and she sits herself there, placing the cigarette between her lips. She flicks at the lighter a few time, but it won't strike.

"Ugh!, Bloody hell! Come on!" she mutters through the cigarette, shaking the small plastic lighter and trying again.

Nothing.

"Screw you!" she tosses it on the floor, slamming her boot over it several times until she hears it break.

_Get a fucking grip Arya._ Her eyes fall close and she takes in several long, deeps breaths.

"Here." a male voice startles her. It's a guy; sat himself besides her on the bench, hand stretched towards her with a silver lighter resting on his palm.

She steals a quick glance over his face before she snatches the lighter. "Thanks." she mumbles as she lights her cigarette. Two deep drags and the tip of her cigarette lights to life. Arya closes her eyes and exhales.

When the guys pulls out his own pack, Arya tossed him the lighter. They sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Smoking a cigarette with a stranger has always been a silly wish of hers and it is as pleasant as she imagined it would be.

"So . . . why are you here, at the _Ange_r and _Stress_ Clinic?" he tapped the ashes off his cigarette, breaking the silence. A thin stream of smoke streams out of his lips, and he swats at it with his free hand.

Arya turns on the bench and straddles it, so that her body to faces him.

"I really had no choice. My father." she takes another deep drag before failing at a smoke ring. "You?"

"No choice either. My father as well." he declares sourly.

"Yeah... Dad's duck." she croaks, bringing a smile from the guy.

He puffs out a row of almost perfect smoke rings, shooting a small cocky smile her way. Arya rolls her eyes and shoves his shoulder playfully.

He chuckles. "So what _did _you do, to make your dad leave you no other choice?"

Arya's gaze falls and her foot starts toying with the plastic pieces of the broken lighter.

At first, Arya didn't want to tell him. Admitting she couldn't control herself, felt, in a way, as though she was admitting that everything everyone said was true.

But then she thought, _this guy is here too. Were on the same boat._ She finally raises her eyes to meet his and catches him staring at her face. He has very blue eyes; a nice contrast with his dark hair. For a second, he looks almost embarrassed to be caught staring.

"I... sort of almost beat my sister's boyfriend to death."

He huffs out, but Arya isn't sure if it is a chuckle or a gasp.

"He had it coming, I mean, you should have seen how he left my best mate Mycah."

Lighter guy raises an eyebrow with shock, but smiles. "Do you think it was right though, to take matters into your own hands?"

She was about to say yes, but then she thought about it. Actually thought about it.

"No." she admitted honestly.

He smiles and drops his cigarette to the floor.

"When you go in _there_, talk to them." he tells her. "_Actually_ talk to them."

Arya grimaced. "What does that even mean?" she asks bitterly.

"A lot of people don't open up right away when it comes to places like this... cause, well, who wants to tell some random stranger their shit, right...but the sooner you admit your faults... the sooner you open up, the sooner you'll be done with this place. When you go in there, just open up to them, like you just did with me. Just . . . talk to them."

"They _are _random strangers! Pompous ones too. How can anyone expect you to open up to a stranger?"

"I'm a random stranger; you opened up to me."

Arya chuckles mirthlessly with a roll of her eyes and flicks her cigarette to the floor as she stands. "You're right." she snaps curtly. "You are a stranger." She twists her boot over the cigarette and spares him a last glance. "I guess I'll see ya."

With the she turns and makes her way to the clinic.

They give her some forms to fill out and ask her to wait until her name is called. When they finally call her, she is led down a hall and into a large, paneled office with a large window overlooking a garden.

There are a couple of sofas along the walls and a chair opposite the desk, where she sits to wait.

_I'm only suppose to be here for one hour_, she reminds herself as she checks the time on her wrist watch.

_I can survive an hour._

A side door opens, and to her surprise, lighter guy walks in.

Arya's brows furrow. "What are _you_ doing here?"

He seems only mildly surprised to see her as he crossed to her; a stupid smile stretched across his face, and holds his hand out for her to shake.

"I'm Gendry Baratheon." his smile turns into a grin. "Your doctor."

**AN**

**I'm already writing that Stark girl, and I'm nowhere near the end of that one, but i just had this crazy idea for **_**this**_** story, so here is a little preview. I'll probably start proper work on it when i finish that Stark girl.**


	2. Chapter 2

"You're joking, right?"

Lighter guy pulled his hand back, examining it as he walked behind the large desk. "I'm afraid not." he sat himself on the leather chair and began leafing through the file that sat on the desk.

"But you... I mean, you...You said..."

"Arya Stark." he reads out loud and meets her eyes with his piercing blue ones.

_Eyes like Roberts._

"Wait..." she holds her hands up. "Baratheon? As in Robert Baratheon?"

"Yes." he smiles. "My father. Your doctor, technically, but i'm a resident here so..."

Arya stands abruptly and her chair falls to the floor. "This is unbelievable. It's ridiculous." she laughs out acidly, rubbing her eyes with the pads of her hands.

"Excuse me?" lighter boy rises too, clearly confused.

Arya shakes her head and combs her fingers through her short hair in frustration. "Screw you..." she points the the guy sitting behind the large desk, trying very hard not to crack. "Screw you, and your father." she breaths out before turning for the door and yanking it open, leaving lighter guy, Dr. Baratheon or whatever his name was, behind without a last glance

_What a joke! What a fucking nightmare!_

She stomps down the hallway, nostrils flaring in anger, and slaps her flat palms aggressively on the counter, startling the clerk out of her chair. Her eyes are wide with horror, and Arya almost feels bad for scaring her.

"I want another doctor."

It takes a few seconds for the woman to recover from the fright, and she begins clicking her mouse and scrolling down the computer.

"Uh... I'm.. I'm afraid it's something you have to take up with the judge on, on your next court date." the woman manages to stutter out.

Arya rolls her eyes and turns for the door.

She had no idea who had arranged this, but when she found out, they would certainly regret it.

xxx

Nymeria was belly side down on the floor, staring up at Arya in the bed; hands waving frantically in the air as she related her story.

"So, I'm sitting on the bench, and my damn lighter won't work. Then out of nowhere, this guy comes, with a lighter..."

"Was he hot?"

Arya screwed her face into a frown. "Don't be stupid!"

"So... he was." Nymeria propped herself onto her elbows, suddenly more alert.

"I didn't say that." Arya rolled her eyes, feeling herself grow tense.

"I've known you since we we're five Arya, it's _never_ been hard for you to express yourself when something repulses you, particularly guys... When you find one attractive though..."

"I didn't really notice if he was hot or not." Arya cut her off.

Nymeria rolled her eyes. "What-_ever_." she sang as she rolled on her back to stretch. "Go on... Hot lighter guy comes..."

"You're so stupid."

"Go on!"

"So. . . we start talking, and he's... alright. Seems cool... Then when I go inside for my appointment..." Arya pauses with a sigh, turning away from Nymeria. "Guess who the doctor is?"

Nymeria clapped her hands over her mouth, springing up into a sitting position.

"No fucking way!" she mumbles into her hands.

Arya nods, feeling the anger from earlier stir within her all over again.

"You're hot for your doctor!" Nymeria gasped out.

Arya grabbed a pillow and flung it at the red head. It hit her face and made her neck bend sideways awkwardly.

"I'm not hot for anyone!" Arya growled out, grabbing another pillow and flinging it at her friend. This time, Nymeria caught it in the air.

"Then why are you so upset?" she demanded.

"Because . . . he's a Baratheon. He's Robert's son."

"Wait, what?"

"I think he's from another marriage, or something. I had never heard of him before. But I know this is Robert's doing. I _know_ it. Robert and that stupid prick Joffrey."

"Oh." Nymeria sat back with a frown. "I hate them." she shook her head to herself.

"How's your brother?"

"Ha! You know Mycah. He's trying to be strong, but that asshole really fucked him up. He can take visits starting next week though." Nymeria hugged the pillow in her hands. "I wish I'd been there."

Arya smiled. "You would have loved it. Joffrey was crying. He was actually crying!"

Nymeria threw her head back with laughter, and Arya laughed too.

Her drive home helped her sort her thoughts out. She would talk to her father, and they would work something out.

Pulling into her driveway, though, she cursed under at the sight of Robert's silver suv parked next to her father's car.

"Damn it!" Arya turned the engine off.

Her father and Robert were siting in the parlor with drinks in their hands. Both rose from their seat as soon as Arya walked in.

"There she is." Robert boomed with a smile. "Heard you left your session a bit early."

Arya pulled her messenger bag off her shoulder and dropped on the floor besides her feet.

"What happened Arya?" Ned asked her parentally.

"Did he tell you who the doctor is?" Arya gestured to Robert, taking a step forward.

"Gendry. My son." Robert answered with a smile.

"Oh, yea, that's just so convenient!" Arya spat out sarcastically.

"Robert suggested his clinic to the judge after your hearing." Ned set his drink down and stood besides Robert. _He's siding with him._

"I agreed to this, but you're crazy if you expect me to talk to you or your _son, _about what happened with Joffrey." Arya sneered at Robert defiantly. "Is that even allowed?" she asked her father.

"Gendry and Robert's family have no relationship. They've never met, and for that reason the judge allowed Robert's plea to let Gendry take your case."

"No." Arya shook her head. " There has to be some other way. _His_ is not the only clinic in London..."

"You listen to me, girl!" Robert crossed to her, his face twisted with rage, just inches from hers. "You're damn lucky I didn't just toss your ass in jail after what you did to my son! I didn't press charges," he roared, pointing to Ned, "Just for the the love I have for this one! But you didn't make any choices. You don't have the right to demand options. You don't have to agree to anything. I'm doing you a damn favour, and all you should be doing right now, it thanking me, you..."

"ROBERT!" Ned's sudden roar made Arya jump back.

She hadn't realized until now, that she'd shrunk her shoulders, and had been staring up wide-eyed at Robert.

Ned crossed to Robert, and both men exchanged a hard glance.

"Go to your room, Arya." her father eyes never left Robert's. Arya grabbed her bag off the floor and climbed the stairs, still a bit shaken up.

This was the first time she had ever seen Ned react this way. Especially towards Robert.

Arya dropped her back at the foot of her bed and slipped out of her boots.

When her father came to her room nearly an hour later, Arya could tell from the look in his face that Robert had gotten his way.

"You're staying at that clinic, and Robert's son will treat you." Ned announced sternly.

Arya blinked back, unable to speak, and too scared to even try to argue with her father.

"I'm sorry about Robert. It'll never happen again. . . But he's right. He could've pressed charges, and he didn't. You had no business in a fight between two young men, no matter who they are. This is for your own good Arya. You need to learn to control your anger." he leaned in to kiss her forehead. "I love you." he said, and turned for the door.

"Crap." Arya sighed.

She would have to see lighter guy again.

**AN**

**Hi!**

**So I didn't want to update this story until I finished that Stark girl...**

**But I decided, what the heck, I'll post another chapter...**

**SO, something totally new, that I really love!**

**Nymeria is human! **

**Also, Gendry is a Baratheon in this one, and also I'm just completely going to just not even explore or acknowledge the whole incest thing... so as far as Im concerned, Cersei and Robert really did have all those babies, and Joffrey and Gendry are half brothers...**

**I'm not sure when I'll update this one again, I really do want to finish TSG and already have a hard time making time to write those chapters, since they require a bit of research (this one will too, now that I think about it. Any psychology majors out there willing to lend a hand?)**

**So we'll see how It goes with this one :)**


	3. Chapter 3

"I didn't expect to see you again." lighter guy smiled up at her from behind his desk. Arya crossed the large office and sat on the leather chair in front of lighter guy's desk. _Dr. Baratheon _she reminded herself. _Not lighter guy._

The title did not suit the guy at all. The desk was too big for him, and he looked as uncomfortable in it as Arya was in this room. _He doesn't belong in here anymore than I do_.

Uncomfortable chair. Uncomfortable silence. The only sound came from a slow ticking clock somewhere in the room and the click of her nails against her teeth as she bit them to the quick. Once, his stomach grumbled, and he chuckled softly. He chuckled again minutes later when her stomach grumbled, a bit more loudly than his had. The minutes passed ever so slowly, and Arya felt exasperation crawling just as slow under her skin. The desperate need to claw and scratch it out had become nearly unbearable.

The awkward silence dragged on for nearly an hour now, and to her surprise, lighter guy had not tried prying. He just sat there. Silent. Unmoving. More than once, Arya caught herself inadvertently glancing his way to make sure he was still in the room.

_Tick._

_Tock._

_Tick._

_Tock._

_Tick. _

_Tock._

Her eyes found the clock. Her hour was nearly over, and she relaxed a bit, and moved to chewing on the skin around her thumb as she shifted her weight on her seat. Lighter boy mimicked her movement, and Arya's eyes snapped to him. His blue eyes were fixed on her face.

"Could you _stop_ staring?" she snapped.

He snorted softly at that.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, really." he leaned in, resting his arms on the desk. "It's just, that's the first thing you've said in..." he pushed his sleeve up to check his wrist watch, "56 minutes."

Arya sighed, and leaned back on her chair, her open palms sliding down it's leather arms with mock gusto. "You amaze me with your staggering time keeping skills. I can't say I'm surprised you have them, though, since you waste people's time for a living. How much do you make, by the way?"

"So you think this is all a waste of time?"

"Don't _you_?"

"I think I should be the one asking the questions here."

"Oh, because you've done one hell of a job in the past 50 something minutes." Arya chuckled mirthlessly. "Go on. Doctor BA_RA_THEON! Let's hear YOUR expert opinion. Is this really necessary, or are we just wasting each other's time here?"

"There's no need to shout." he said calmly. His composed tone set Arya's insides ablaze. "And I do think it's important. The more you talk about what happened, the easier it becomes for you to realize that what you did was wrong."

Arya's face screwed into an irritated grimace. "Oh, '_when you go in there, you should talk to them, open up.'" _she repeated his words from their very first conversation in a low, lame-ish voice_. _ "give it up, dude. You're so _fake_." his right eyebrow cocked up at that.

"You don't know me, Arya. How can you possibly assume I am fake?"

"You can't really believe that this is not a waste of time. I don't need to explain myself to anyone. I hit Joffrey, alright. I beat the shit out of him. Was I wrong? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Hell yes. DO I regret IT? NO! I don't. There is nothing more to it than that. There is _nothing_ left to discuss, except that I fucked him up because he beat the shit out of my best friend for no _reason_ except because he felt like it, and he could." Arya sprung from her seat at that. "If you think that making me sit in some office for an hour every week will make me realize the _terrible_ thing I have done... will make me regret it... if you think that is important to make me admit that the right thing to do would have been to just stand by and let that asshole get away with it, then you keep lying to yourself. But just know, that I won't. Nothing will change how I feel, nothing will change what happened. SO to answer your question, yes this is a waste of time. Your time and mine. And you want to know why I think you're fake, even when I don't know you. It's because I can see it in your eyes. Every word that has come out of your mouth is rehearsed, and is not your own, and I can see the look in your eyes every time you speak. They betray the fact that even you think it's all bullshit." sht stole a quick glance to the clock then met Dr. Baratheon's shocked eyes. "My hour is up." Arya told him. "See you next week."

With that she snatched her back pack off the floor and stomped out of the office. Her cells were on fire, just like they had been the afternoon she'd beat up Joffrey.

Perhaps it was a Baratheon thing.

xxx

"Eat." Nymeria barked at Mycah, pushing the hospital table closer to her brother. He wrinkled his nose at the food on his tray.

Arya sat crossed legged at the end of the hospital bed, holding the television control in one hand, switching the channels idly while her two best friends argued over hospital food. She turned to them, stretching her arm out to grab the purple gelatin cup that sat on Mycah's tray. She peeled the aluminum foil lid off. The smell of artificial grapes made her wrinkle her nose. She didn't blame poor Mycah for turning up his nose at the food. It all looked terrible.

"Try this." she stabbed a plastic spoon into the gelatin and placed it in his hands. "When will he be released?" she asked Nymeria, who popped a chunk of potato into her mouth.

"Next week." she mumbled with a mouth full of food.

"Good."

"She told me, you know. About your court order." Mycah blinked at Arya as he spooned purple jell-o into his mouth.

Arya shrugged. "What of it?"

"Arya..."

"What?! Who cares. It doesn't matter. I'd do it all over again." she smiled at him sweetly. "It was all for you, and it was worth it."

Nymeria gasped at that. "You had a session today, didn't you? How did it go?"

Arya bit her lip, turning to the tv. She didn't really want to talk about it, but knowing Nymeria, there was no way out of telling her. "It was . . . fine. I was able to blow off some steam, so it was fine."

"It's still with Lighter guy? Did they let you trade him in for another doctor?" Mycah asked. Arya's head snapped to Nymeria.

"You told him?!"

The red haired girl held her hands up in defense. "Just that we call him lighter guy."

"And that he's a Baratheon." Mycah added with a mischievous smile. "And that you've got the hots for him."

"Oh, you're dead!" Arya growled, nearly knocking the wheelie table over as she jumped off the bed and chased Nymeria out the hospital room.

**AN**

**short chapter. but it's something. i'm trying to work on all my pending stories :)**

**tell me what you think! **


	4. Chapter 4

The first time he sees her, she is sitting outside the clinic, cursing her empty lighter with torrid rage. He is studying psychology, and it has become instinct to read people. This girl is angry. Fiery and angry.

She turns out to be his 4:35. Her file states he has her for an hour, but they never make it past the 15 minute mark. She is out of there before he can utter more than few words.

He looks over her file and learns this is the same girl that put her half brother in the hospital. He smiles.

An attempt to have his father assign her to another counselor proves pointless and he is forced to make her his permanent 4:35 for the next 23 weeks.

The second time he sees her tops the first. She doesn't talk for nearly the entire hour of her session, save for the last few minutes, which she spends building up into a tirade that gave him a massive headache.

"Did I do something to you?" was the first thing Gendry said to his father as he sat across him in the restaurant table.

Robert had made reservations at Gaucho's a few days ago, and Gendry had to cancel his own plans to show up.

His father was leaning back in the white leather seat, looking over the menu with hungry, half-lidded eyes. "Eh?" his eyes never left the menu.

"I was just wondering if I did something to piss you off?" Gendry's head was throbbing and the smell of food was making him nauseous.

Robert set the menu down. "What the fuck are you on about?" he refilled his glass with bourbon and filled Gendry's to the rim.

"No thanks." Gendry shook his head at the glass.

"Drink, _boy_. Why do you think you've done something wrong?" he pushed the glass closer to Gendry.

"My 4:35. Arya Stark."

Robert tipped his head back and let out a jolly chortle. "Oh!" he sighed with a smile, rubbing his round belly in an almost sensual way. _He is drunk. _"I want you to crush her. You have her for 6 months. When those months are over, I want you to hand me her balls in a little sack with a lovely pink ribbon on top."

"Well," Gendry took two large gulps from his drink. "don't be surprised if she hands you mine instead."

Robert's smile faded and his face became stern. "That better be a joke." he finished his bourbon in four gulps and refilled is glass, then moved to try and fill Gendry's.

"Don't." Gendry pushed the bottle neck away. "I'm driving, and I have an exam early in the morning."

"Ah!" Robert hissed and filled Gendry's glass anyway. "I have Clegane. He can drive us both home. And about the girl, get used to patients like her. "

Gendry rolled his eyes. Maybe this was not the best time to bring up the art thing, as he'd planned to do on the drive here.

"You've had enough of those flimsy Ann and Andy cases. Or is it Mickey and Minnie. Whatever the fuck they're called, it's time you move up to uh... well... tougher shit."

Gendry smiled despite himself, and shook his head disapprovingly. "You're _drunk_." he told Robert.

"Are you boys ready to order?" a young, strawberry-blonde server smiled down at both of them with a cheery expression.

"Fuck yeah I am, sweetheart!" Robert boomed out merrily. The girl giggled dutifully and Robert winked at her.

This was definitely not the moment to bring it up. His father was too drunk and it would just turn into an argument. Gendry downed the rest of his drink and poured himself some more. "Fuck it." he muttered under his breath. "Fuck the exam."

xxx

"Why does **K** get stuck?"

"What?" Sansa looked up from her homework, confused.

"The letter **K**. It gets stuck." Arya pressed the typewriter key to show Sansa.

"It always has. Ever since grandfather gave it to me."

"Why don't you get it fixed?"

"I never use it, so there is not point in fixing it. It's just for decoration. Did you need something Arya? I'm doing homework."

Arya pressed the typewriter spacebar idly and shrugged. "Mycah's out of the hospital next week."

Sansa set her pencil down smiled and sympathetically. "That's good. They have not said anything about Joffrey's release date yet."

"Let me know when they do. I want to be there the minute he gets out of the hospital... so I can put him back in there."

"You do _that_, and they will put _you_ in jail this time." Sansa warned, turning her attention back to her homework.

"If I'm going to jail, might as well kill him then."

"Arya!" Sansa slammed her text book closed and slid off the bed.

"Its only a _joke_."

"I don't see anyone laughing. Arya, Joffrey is part of my life now, you have to learn to get along with him. For my sake."

"NO I DON'T, _Sansa_! He is just your stupid boyfriend. You'll dump him as soon as you figure out what a complete dick he is."

"Don't call him that Arya." Sansa crossed her arms over her chest. "He is not just my boyfriend."

Arya sprung off the desk chair and stood before Sansa with suspicious eyes. "What. Are you... talking... about?"

Both girls were barefoot, but Sansa stood nearly a foot taller than Arya. It was Arya's presence which towered over Sansa's in that moment, though.

"Joffrey proposed." Sansa said in a small, shivery voice.

Arya's face twisted with disgust at the thought of Sansa married to that prick. She shook her head in disbelief. "You won't say yes. You're 20 years old, Sansa! He's a piece of crap! You can't marry him! You can't say yes!"

Sansa's gaze fell and Arya let out a bitter laugh. "You... want me to kill him, don't you?"

Sansa rolled her eyes walked back to her bed. She picked up her textbook and flipped it open on a random page. "You won't hurt him."

Arya's eyes narrowed and she felt a wave of heated rage consume her insides. She stomped to the bed, knocked the book from Sansa's hands, grabbed one of the pillows off the bed, and hit Sansa with it over, and over and over again; messing up her neat bun.

"Arya! Arya, stop!" Sansa pleaded, shielding the hits with her arms.

"I hate you, you know that!" Arya threw the pillow over her shoulder and curled her hands into fists. _I can beat some sense into her._ "About 99.9 percent of the time, I really, _really_ hate you!" she closed her eyes and hissed out a heated sigh, her tight fists loosening at her sides. "But for the rest of that .1 percent . . . I really, _really_ love you."

After a few seconds the pulse of rage had passed and Arya opened her eyes to find Sansa sitting limpy on the bed; had her bottom lip worried against her teeth to stiffled a small whimper. Her face was framed with red tendrils of loose hair, and her blue eyes glazed with unshed tears. Arya didn't know if it was the pillow beating, or what she was saying that had triggered Sansa's tears.

"I love you a lot. Stupid! I don't want to see you with a guy like Joffrey. That .1 percent of love, it is strong enough that I take jail, over seeing you with that asshole. Any day."

Sansa sniffed and wiped at the few tears that had finally rolled out of her eyes. "You don't mean that." she whispered softly.

Arya chuckled weakly. She suddenly felt deflated. Drained.

It had been a long day. Between her visit with lighter guy, and her visit with Mycah, and now this, she was just about ready to collapse into a sleeping coma.

"What? That I love you?" she laughed again with a small smile. "Oh I meant it. Though it's probably more like .000001 percent."

"You won't hurt Joffrey."

Arya rolled her eyes and made to leave. She turned at the door to get a last look at the mess she'd left her sister in. "No. I won't hurt him. Because I don't think you will marry him."

xxx

"Look I think we got off on the wrong foot last week. Why don't we start-"

"Oh, shut up!" Arya walked around him and slumped down onto one of the sofas in lighter guy's large office. She rummaged though her messenger bag and pulled out her lighter and a cigarette.

"You'll set off the sprinklers!" Gendry snatched the cigarette from her hand. "Listen!" he yelled suddendly. "If I have to tolerate your _bitchy_ ass for 22 more weeks, we have to come up with an arrangement!" Arya's mouth fell open with a surprised smile, and he regretted his tone almost instantly. "I'm sorry." he uttered out quickly. "That was uncalled for."

"You know, there's a few Doctors in this clinic that can help you with those anger issues. Might want to make an appointment."

Gendry shook his head. "I'm sorry. I had a difficult week."Gendry circled his desk and pulled the top drawer open. His bottle of pills rolled out.

"_Oh really?_ _What happened?_"

He shook his head again and slammed the drawer close. "Just, crap. It... it doesn't really-"

"_I was... that was sarcasm, you idiot. I really don't care about your week_."

Gendry's head snapped to Arya. "You're just... a little bowl of _sunshine_, aren't you?" he grabbed a plastic bag off his desk and flung it at her so it landed on her lap. "I got you something."

"What is it?"

"Look, you made it very clear last week that you don't want to talk and open up, and I can't force you to. You don't want to hear _me_ talk. But when your 6 months are up, and you go back into that courtroom, they will be expecting results. They will be looking at my notes to see if you've made some sort of progress or not. Now, I could just say, _fuck it, let them give her 6 more months_. But I risk being the fucker who is stuck with you during _those_ 6 months. So let's try and work together. I want you out of here as much as you."

Arya opened the bag and pulled out a colouring book and a box of crayons.

"This has helped a few of my other patients." Gendry crossed his hands over his chest.

Arya glared up at him with dark eyes. "Do I look _five_ to you?"

Gendry chuckled humourlessly. "You act like you're _five_. But you look somewhere around twelve. Look, If you don't like..." he turned his head to one side, trying to figure out whose picture was on the cover of the book. It was some doe-eyed baby elephant he'd never seen before. "Whoever the hell that is..." he gestured to the book.

"It's Dumbo." Arya snapped at him. "Did you _not_ have a childhood?"

"If you don't like _Dumbo_," Gendry ignored her question, "I can get you another book. But you have to work on it. Every week, and it stays here. You do this, and maybe I'll discard my notes for the first two days. _Maybe_. Colour outside the lines, and I might have to start making shit up about you."

"Dumbo's fine." she met his eyes with her fierce grey ones. "I don't have to talk?" she asked warily.

"No talking." he agreed.

"Not even from _you_?"

"No."

The girl considered the book for a long moment before she finally nodded. "It's a deal then."

"Shake on it." Gendry held his hand out for her. She shook her head.

"I'm a germaphobe." she forced a smile.

"Sure you are." Gendry pulled his hand back.

Arya flipped on her belly in the sofa and kicked her sneakers off as she opened the crayon box to inspect the colours. She had bright green and yellow striped socks. Gendry smiled.

"Are you just going to just stand there... and stare are me? What are _you_ going to do for an hour while_ I _pretend I'm five." she asked as she flipped through the pages of the book.

"Do you really care?" he crossed to his desk and sunk into his chair. " or is that more sarcasm?"

Arya let out an unguarded snort and rolled her eyes. _There's the girl I met out in the garden_, Gendry though as he pulled her file open.

_**"Purposely belligerent." **_ he wrote in his messy handwriting. _**"With possible mild to severe ODD."**_

He pulled his drawer open once more and the pills rolled forward. He plucked them out and filled a glass with water from the jug that sat on a table behind his desk. He made sure Arya was not looking, and he popped a pill inside his mouth and washed it down with water.

xxx

**AN**

**I'm back! After a very long hiatus. A lot of crap happened, but I won't bore you with it. **

**Someone asked about the age between the characters.**

**Arya is 17. Gendry is 27. **

**I am keeping the actor's age difference to help readers picture them a little better, and because Gendry is suppose to be an intern doctor at the clinic. **

**Why not make Arya older?**

**Because I think Arya is a smart person. She is angry, but an older Arya beating up Joffrey is a bit immature. Arya is too smart for that. In an modern AU though, i think teen Arya would beat the crap out of Joffrey. **

**So yes. Ten year difference. **

**So happy readers are reacting positively to a human Nymeria. **

**Please review! I want to read your thoughts.**

**FIC UPDATEs!**

**"The Bull****" update is next. Then ****"that Stark girl"**

**Unless you follow me on my new tumblr, there was for you to know that I still meant to finish the stories, and I'm sorry.**

**Which, by the way, if any of you are tumblr followers I have a new tumblr now, so I'll leave the link to that in my profile.**

**thanks for reading!**


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